This blog was formerly called 'Horn Ensemble Around the World". It was initiated as part of Advanced Brass Ensemble Literature course at School of Music, University of Iowa for Spring 2017. Since the class is over, I would like to write about other stuff too rather than horn related. So I decided to change the title to "Horns and Other Topics!" or HOT!
I would love to hear your comments and thoughts!
Please enjoy!

Sunday, January 29, 2017

Extremely Brief History of Horn: Hunting Horn

Before starting talking about the horn quartet from my previous post, I would like to take you a bit to horn history first.

Horn probably was one of the very first musical instrument. It was originated form the animal horns. However, there is no evidence of when was horn being developed from animal horns to metal-made horn.

Many of you might wonder why bell of modern horn is facing backward. The reason is, around 15th or 16th century in Europe, horn was being used as a signal for hunting sport. This signal needed to be given to king or royal family backward. This was why horn bell is facing that way. Because of this reason also, horn that was used for this was called 'hunting horn'.

Here are some interesting YouTube videos of hunting horns

More information about horn history can be found from this following links.